The Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has called for Martin Taylor to be banned for life after the Birmingham defender's awful challenge on Eduardo Da Silva left the Gunners striker with a broken leg, and perhaps facing a battle to save his career.

"This guy should never play football again," Wenger said. "What is he doing on the football pitch? I've gone along with the idea for a long time that to stop Arsenal, you have to kick Arsenal. I knew that was coming for a long time now."

Eduardo was taken straight to hospital following the challenge. Sky refused to show replays of the incident, but photographs showed the tackle left a bone protruding through the striker's sock. "His injury is very, very bad. More than the season is over," said Wenger. "He appears to have broken his shin and his fibula.

"The answer you normally get after a tackle like that is 'he is not the type of guy who does that'. It's like a guy who kills one time in his life. It's enough. You have a dead person. This tackle is absolutely horrendous. If you watch it again, you can't say the guy has played the ball. It is not acceptable."

The Birmingham manager Alex McLeish insisted the defender had no intention of hurting his opponent. "Martin's distraught about the lad's injury," McLeish said. "It's certainly not in Martin Taylor's makeup at all to commit a malicious tackle."

"I didn't think it was a sending off challenge. I think he mis-timed it and perhaps on another occasion you might say to Martin 'stand up and don't dive in.' But you see millions of tackles in the Premier League which look horrendous if you slow them down."